Chapter 570: - The Counterattack Starts Now!

The wind by Qingtan was gentle when it blew in from the lake. But after circling once along the shore, it seemed to be overwhelmed by the thick stench of blood there, twisting into several little eddies that lingered for a long time without dispersing.

Count Pingye stood there, looking down at Qu Peiluo before him.

Qu Peiluo was not exactly kneeling. It was more like half-kneeling, half-sitting. He seemed to have injured his leg and could not have stood even if he wanted to.

Count Pingye’s first greeting had helped him remember his dead father.

After a long silence, Count Pingye spoke.

“Hungry?”

Qu Peiluo smiled.

“That is our Chu custom.”

By Chu custom, when two armies fought, the victorious side was expected to treat the defeated side’s nobles generously. Beautiful servant girls were probably too much to hope for, but food, clothing, and comfort were supposed to be guaranteed.

“I’ll have food prepared,” Count Pingye said. “I happen to be hungry too.”

Qu Peiluo shook his head.

“You’re a Yan man. There is no need to observe our Chu customs for me.”

“What Yan man, Chu man? At the end of the day, we’re all Xia people.”

The ancestors of Yan, Jin, and Chu had all been vassals of Great Xia. Go back eight or nine centuries, and they had all served in the same court.

Qu Peiluo, however, said:

“Build a fence and leave it standing long enough, and eventually what it surrounds becomes home.”

“That is actually rather interesting.”

“Count Pingye is rather more interesting than I expected. We met once before, but you concealed your identity then. The way you spoke really did feel different from now.”

“I’m impressed you still remember. I’d forgotten.”

“Count Pingye intends to persuade me to surrender?”

“That thought did cross my mind.”

“Do you think it’s possible? Given the relationship between you and me?”

Qu Peiluo leaned backward, propping both hands on the pebbles behind him and raising his face to the sky.

Truthfully, he was quite handsome.

Especially now, against the atmosphere of defeat, he possessed an oddly poignant air of desolation.

“What relationship is there between you and me?” Count Pingye smiled. “I don’t believe I owe you anything.”

Ordering the Azure Luan Army slaughtered.

Forcing your father to his death.

Stealing your fiancée on your wedding day and making your name famous throughout Great Chu. No, throughout the entire world.

Count Pingye continued:

“Just as you said, you’re a Chu man and I’m a Yan man. Our states are enemies. Whatever a Yan man does to a Chu man, each of us serves his own master and follows his own state. So I owe you nothing.”

“Count Pingye is right.” Qu Peiluo nodded. “In the end, I simply was not capable enough. Whether in military affairs or cultivation, I cannot compare with you. Speaking from the heart, I truly do hate you. But even including this defeat, I can say that I lost fair and square.”

“What is this? The dignity of a Great Chu noble?” Count Pingye asked.

“You could say that.”

Qu Peiluo lifted one hand.

“Then I ask Count Pingye to grant me that dignity.”

“I never intended to make you die,” Count Pingye said. “There aren’t many people in this world who have treated me as well as you have.”

Qu Peiluo opened his mouth, then laughed soundlessly.

“That is true.”

“There are still quite a few Chu troops around us. I hope you can send them a message and have them withdraw. I am extremely softhearted by nature and cannot bear killing. Normally, even seeing someone kill a fish fills me with pity. So if fewer people can die, let fewer people die. Consider it a way of accumulating a little virtue for yourself.”

Qu Peiluo said:

“Count Pingye jests. Lin Rong’s men and Zhang Huang’s men may not be your match. Right now, my Central Army has suffered a crushing defeat, I, the young lord of the Qu Clan, am about to die, and the remnants of the Azure Luan Army are bound to suffer a collapse in morale. There is also a Left Wing wavering over at Dahe Town. If you want to fight, you can follow your victory and roll straight through them. If you want to withdraw, you can enter Changxi Commandery at your leisure. Why bother saying all this nonsense to a dying man like me? Could humiliating someone you have trampled beneath your feet several times truly make you happy?”

“Actually... a little.”

“Count Pingye is refreshingly pure.”

“I have always cared a great deal about quality of life.”

“What a pity we became enemies from the moment we met.”

Before his wedding, Qu Peiluo had always possessed an excellent reputation in Great Chu. First, his status was exalted, so there was never any shortage of people willing to build momentum around him and praise him. Second, as Qu Tiannan’s eldest legitimate son, he had been raised from birth to inherit the title of Pillar of State. However poor he might be, how poor could he truly become?

Chu romance had nothing to do with commoners.

But the nobles really were romantic.

If not for the incident of stealing the Princess, then even with Yan and Chu at war, Qu Peiluo would have been perfectly willing to sit down with Count Pingye of Great Yan, drink wine, and chat.

They might even have admired one another before battle.

Would that not have become a fine and elegant anecdote?

But from that day onward, the relationship between the two men had been torn apart completely.

Qu Peiluo reached out, intending to borrow Count Pingye’s saber and kill himself.

Count Pingye shook his head. He did not hand over the Barbarian Saber at his waist. Instead, he held a palm out toward a Yan soldier nearby.

Guo Dong immediately passed his own saber to Count Pingye in wild excitement, his breathing quickening.

Count Pingye gave the cavalry saber a casual swing.

“Back then, your father also used a Great Yan cavalry saber to cut his own throat beside the Wang River.”

Qu Peiluo seemed to have grown accustomed to this.

In truth, this eldest legitimate son of the Qu Clan really was not as useless as people made him out to be.

The first time, A’Ming had disguised himself as the Regent, and the real Regent had happened to visit as well. That was why Zheng Fan had managed to escape so easily with the Princess.

This time, Qu Peiluo had faced the Savage King.

And what kind of man was the Savage King?

A ruthless hero who had once stood opposite Qu Peiluo’s father as an equal on the eastern bank of the Wang River, each supporting one flank of the line.

Qu Peiluo accepted the saber.

He laid it across his own neck and faced the lake.

“I have brought shame upon Father.”

Count Pingye calmly replied:

“Don’t worry. It won’t be long before the entire Qu Clan, old and young, women and children, even the chickens and dogs, are wiped out without one left alive.”

“...” Qu Peiluo.

The wind along the shore suddenly seemed a little oppressive.

Qu Peiluo laughed and turned his head toward Count Pingye.

“Do you think threatening me with that now can still work?”

I am already about to kill myself. Why would I still care about anyone else?

“I just like talking to myself. Sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt your business. It’s fine. You do your thing. I’ll say mine. The Fan Clan has already rebelled, hasn’t it? Fan Zhengwen has been my man for a long time. Given how familiar the Fan Clan is with your Qu Clan, when Great Yan’s iron cavalry eventually reaches your lands, how many people surnamed Qu do you think will escape? This Count is actually quite broad-minded. If someone makes me unhappy, no problem. I simply make sure his whole family never suffers illness or pain again.”

Qu Peiluo said:

“The great war is not over. Does Count Pingye believe that defeating me once means Great Chu has already fallen?”

“Where did I come from?”

“Yan?”

“No. I came by water. You should already have received the news. I burned the granaries of Jing City.”

“Great Chu can still endure...”

“Where did I come from?”

“What?”

“I came from Juyang City. I stayed beneath Juyang City’s walls for many days and never loosed a single arrow at them.”

“Count, what exactly are you trying to say?”

“Beneath Juyang City, every day I ate imperial pastries. I watched the Dugu Clan’s army pass by. I watched the armies of the other great houses pass by. They all bypassed Juyang City and marched straight north. I won’t lie to you. I never met my elder brother-in-law, your Regent of Great Chu. But...”

Count Pingye lowered his head and looked at Qu Peiluo, who still held the saber across his neck.

“I have a feeling your sovereign is borrowing another man’s knife to kill.”

“Heh. Hahahahaha...”

Qu Peiluo laughed.

“I thought Count Pingye was going to say something important.”

The Regent, once the Fourth Prince, possessed immense ambition and ability. The great noble houses were genuinely convinced by him.

So Qu Peiluo did not believe the Regent could be so shortsighted that, with the state on the verge of collapse, he would still commit acts that pained his own people and delighted his enemies.

“I just have that feeling. Truly. Perhaps you think I am deceiving you and sowing discord. If you believe I would use such a cheap method to divide you... mm, then believe that. Truthfully, I don’t know what your sovereign’s confidence comes from either. But before long, perhaps even right now, Great Yan’s Prince of Jingnan will lead several hundred thousand iron cavalry past Zhennan Pass without bothering with it, charge directly into Chu proper, enter Shanggu Commandery, and drive into Great Chu’s heartland. Nian Yao? What exactly can he use to stop them? Once he loses his supply route, all he can do is lead the Chu army inside the pass as an isolated force. If he wants to march north, let him. Eastern Jin, aside from my Snow Sea Pass, has already been ruined by years of war. If he can scrape together even one picul of rice there, I’ll call him capable.”

Once the Prince of Jingnan’s army moved and simply ignored the Chu troops in and around Zhennan Pass, Nian Yao’s position would become painfully awkward.

Either he continued hiding in his shell, or he forced his army out for a decisive battle.

There was no third road.

He no longer even possessed the option of an extreme base trade.

And the Yan army would seize complete control of the initiative in this war.

Let Tian Wujing fight with the wind at his back.

Just thinking about it was terrifying.

“Count, do you know how the histories will record me if I do not kill myself today?”

“Histories do not waste much ink on minor figures.”

“Hehehe...”

“If one day Great Yan unifies all the Xia realms, then you will be called a wise man who recognized the times. Even if you resist to the death, perhaps a thousand years from now the history books will leave you six characters of judgment: obstructed ethnic integration. It’s getting late. Breakfast time is almost over and the brothers are all still hungry. So hurry up. Either cut your throat or bend a knee. Give me a straight answer.”

Qu Peiluo did not lower the saber from his neck.

“Truthfully, I don’t want to die.”

“I know.”

“But you seem to have been forcing me to die the entire time?”

“A man who does not want to die can stand on the edge of a cliff and shout ten thousand times, ‘Don’t come closer or I’ll jump,’ but he still won’t jump.”

“Thank you for wasting so many words on me.”

“No trouble. As the victor, standing here in the lake breeze and chatting with a defeated opponent is actually rather pleasant.”

“Then I am truly honored to have made Count Pingye comfortable?”

“This is Chu, not Jin.”

Qu Peiluo lowered the saber and tossed it onto the ground.

“I’m hungry.”

Count Pingye bent down, picked up the cavalry saber, and returned it to Guo Dong.

Guo Dong accepted it and excitedly stroked the hilt over and over again.

Count Pingye pointed toward Fourth Lady in the distance.

“Didn’t you hear? Go find us something to eat. Young Master Qu is hungry.”

...

The meal could not be called exquisite, but it was decent enough.

Freshly rolled noodles, cured meat, and fish soup.

The combination was a little strange, but Fourth Lady was an excellent cook, so the result was still flavorful.

Count Pingye and Qu Peiluo sat opposite each other and ate together.

Count Pingye ate casually, chewing with broad movements. First, he was simply the kind of man who pursued his own comfort. Second, ever since seeing the Marquis of Zhenbei roasting a lamb leg in the Imperial Garden and the Marquis of Jingnan sitting casually on a threshold, Count Pingye had learned to “follow local customs.”

Qu Peiluo ate elegantly.

Count Pingye had seen people perform tea ceremonies and flower arrangements before and always thought they looked somewhat affected. Watching a genuine noble young master eat now, though, there truly was a kind of smooth elegance to it.

A true noble did not need precious tableware or expensive ingredients to display his status.

He could make coarse tea and plain rice look like delicacies beneath Heaven.

“You Chu people have too many rules. Even eating a meal has this much ceremony.”

Qu Peiluo gently set down his chopsticks.

“Does the Princess not eat this way?”

“She knows I hate all that empty ceremony, so she never does it in front of me.”

Qu Peiluo nodded.

He was used to it.

A short while later, a report came from outside.

Lin Rong’s force had sent one man. Zhang Huang’s force had sent one as well. The Left Wing at Dahe Town had also sent someone.

By Chu custom, after a great battle in which a noble was captured, the noble’s family had to send someone first to “inspect the goods.”

They had to confirm he had survived.

Confirm that he remained whole and intact.

Only after that would the formal process begin, whether paying silver and gold for ransom or making concessions elsewhere in exchange for the noble’s return.

Originally, this was a war between Yan and Chu. Both sides had already killed each other until their eyes were red. Who still had patience for all these rules? Who would bother observing them with you?

But Count Pingye had still sent scouts to greet all three forces.

Hey.

No rush to fight.

Your young lord was captured alive by me.

Come have a look.

Rules were simple.

Once you possessed power above the rules, when they benefited you, they were rules.

When they did not, they were a fart.

The men sent by those three forces were probably true trusted retainers. Given the Chu habit of raising death warriors, they were likely genuine death warriors as well.

Of course, Count Pingye’s personal guards were not much different.

Men like these did not fear death and were extremely difficult to buy off in a short time. They usually remained near their commanding general and had seen important people before.

That made them the safest choice for inspecting the goods.

Count Pingye and Qu Peiluo were still eating when the three men entered.

All three knelt, then raised their heads and looked at Qu Peiluo.

Afterward, each of them spoke to Qu Peiluo in turn. Their words sounded like greetings, but there were hidden tests inside.

Qu Peiluo answered each one normally.

Then he removed his personal seal, wrote three short letters, stamped them, and let Count Pingye inspect them before handing one to each man.

The three immediately left to report back to their respective commanders.

Qu Peiluo drank fish soup as he asked:

“What does Count Pingye intend to do next?”

“Can you bring those three forces over?” Count Pingye asked without the slightest pretense.

Why else had he spared Qu Peiluo if not for those three armies?

Qu Peiluo smiled.

“Count probably understands the situation of the Left Wing at Dahe Town better than I do. Zhang Huang is one of my direct retainers. He will obey my orders. As for Lin Rong, it is difficult to say. But he should not make an enemy of me.”

Added together, the Left Wing and Zhang Huang’s vanguard amounted to more than ten thousand “fake Chu troops.”

“Thought it through?” Count Pingye asked.

Qu Peiluo nodded.

“If I am already afraid to die, what else is there to think about?”

“A few years ago when I marched south into Qian, there was a man called Yuan Zhenxing, the second-best swordsman of Qian. He stood alone with his sword on the far bank of the Bian River to stop Great Yan’s iron cavalry. I had him shot dead from this side. I took in his disciple. I told her that only by living well and cultivating well could she ever gain the opportunity and ability to kill me in the future.”

Qu Peiluo looked slightly surprised.

“Count wants me to do the same?”

“That is one way. If you are not afraid of death, why be afraid of living? Living is wonderful.”

Qu Peiluo smiled and nodded.

After they finished the meal, Fourth Lady brought in fruit and pastries.

Count Pingye and Qu Peiluo sat together and ate casually.

A while later, Fourth Lady said:

“Master, this servant is tired.”

Count Pingye nodded.

“Then go rest.”

After Fourth Lady left the tent, Qu Peiluo said:

“Count even brings a woman into his command tent.”

“I defeated you. Even if I brought ten male brothel attendants into my command tent, people would call it unconventional elegance and natural romantic flair.”

Qu Peiluo sighed.

“Count truly does not want me to live.”

“Heh. No hurry. You’ll get used to it.”

Not long afterward, another report came from outside.

Lin Rong’s force was pressing forward.

Zhang Huang’s force was pressing forward.

Even the Left Wing stationed at Dahe Town had begun pressing forward with them.

They were not preparing to fight.

The commanders of the three formations intended to hear Qu Peiluo’s instructions personally.

They could hardly come into the Yan command tent themselves and speak face-to-face.

“This Count will go outside and take a look. Sit here a while longer.”

“Please, Count.”

Count Pingye left the tent.

Inside, Qu Peiluo’s gaze darkened.

He reached out, picked up a grape from the table, placed it in his mouth, and chewed slowly.

Then he clapped his hands and straightened the armor he had never removed.

He knew that soon, the Yan Count would take him between the two battle lines and make him shout for Lin Rong, Zhang Huang, and the Left Wing to surrender.

But...

Qu Peiluo drew a deep breath.

Lin Rong’s force and Zhang Huang’s force would withdraw into the capital region and seek the sovereign to guard the imperial procession!

As for the Left Wing, let them do what they wanted. But no matter what, at least half the men in the Left Wing would never willingly defect to the enemy.

Zhang Huang would obey him without question.

Lin Rong possessed his own bottom line.

But so long as Qu Peiluo shouted for them to withdraw and defend the imperial procession, those two formations would never fall into Yan hands.

Qu Peiluo closed his eyes.

He had already thought everything through.

This was the final thing he, the captured eldest legitimate son of the Qu Clan, could still do.

Submit beneath your feet?

Dream on.

Qu Peiluo walked out of the command tent.

A’Ming and Xue San stood outside.

The young lord of the Qu Clan continued forward.

Then suddenly his head spun.

He collapsed unconscious.

Xue San immediately called to A’Ming:

“Quick. Move it!”

...

When Qu Peiluo slowly woke again, he discovered himself tied to a warhorse.

Beside him stood a giant man like an iron tower, one thick arm wrapped around him.

He lowered his eyes.

The armor he had been wearing had been replaced with ordinary Yan armor.

All around them, Yan soldiers stood in formation.

They were clearly somewhat tired, but their morale remained high. Their desire for battle was obvious.

And opposite them, Qu Peiluo could see the banners of Lin Rong’s force and Zhang Huang’s force at a glance.

Farther away stood the banners of the Left Wing, led by the defecting deputy general Han Xu.

Both armies had formed ranks once more.

Their commanders began riding forward and stopped after reaching a certain distance.

At that moment, a “Qu Peiluo” rode out from the Yan formation.

“He” passed before Lin Rong, Zhang Huang, and Han Xu on horseback and shouted:

“From this day forward, the Qu Clan changes banners and surrenders to Great Yan!”

Qu Peiluo’s eyes widened.

That “himself” wearing his armor was like a reflection in a mirror.

Appearance.

Voice.

Bearing.

Even the real Qu Peiluo fell into a momentary daze.

Then, from the front, Count Pingye and the Sword Saint slowly rode over.

Zheng Fan looked at Qu Peiluo and gently tapped his own forehead with one finger.

“This time, this Count learned his lesson.”

The previous time had been that Pillar of State surnamed Shi.

Zheng Fan had just taken his medicine then and had been a little too agitated, allowing the man to disgust him before dying.

This time, with Fourth Lady, a true master of disguise, present, how could he possibly give Qu Peiluo the same opportunity?

Qu Peiluo said:

“Count, an excellent move.”

Count Pingye nodded.

“Whether it is really you or not, you have already surrendered to Yan.”

Qu Peiluo closed his eyes.

Count Pingye urged his horse closer and reached out, lightly patting Qu Peiluo on the cheek.

Qu Peiluo opened his eyes and glared at him furiously.

The gesture had already gone beyond verbal humiliation.

It was the sort of thing a superior did to a catamite.

“Now, do you still want to die? If you do, say the word. I can send you on the road to see your father immediately.”

Qu Peiluo fell silent.

At last, he gave an open, carefree laugh.

“Whether I want to die or not...”

“Good!”

The instant the words “want to die” left his mouth, Fan Li’s axe was already raised and came chopping straight down at Qu Peiluo’s head.

Hum!

Clang!

Longyuan flew from its sheath and blocked the axe.

The collision of metal numbed Fan Li’s arm and knocked his axe downward.

Sword and axe had collided directly in front of Qu Peiluo’s forehead.

For a moment, his entire skull buzzed from the shock, and blood trickled from his ears.

“A’Li. Next time, listen until the sentence is finished.”

Fan Li rubbed his wrist and nodded.

“Got it, Master.”

Qu Peiluo shook his head.

For a moment, he was laughing and crying at the same time.

Then he tried to roar.

But as soon as the first syllable left his mouth, Fan Li chopped the back of his neck with one hand.

Qu Peiluo passed out again.

“Mm. Better this time.”

Count Pingye praised Fan Li.

Beside him, the Sword Saint asked:

“Where do we go next? Still retreat into the Great Marsh?”

Count Pingye pointed north.

“We can play in mud whenever we want. If we want to catch demonic beasts in the Great Marsh, there will be plenty of opportunities later. Counting the days, the Prince’s army should already have begun moving. So we are not running anymore. We are not retreating either. We turn north and strike at the Chu rear, opening the road for the Prince!”

Fan Li shouted excitedly:

“Stab them right up the ass! Ura!”

[End of Chapter 570]